Doesn't it simply depend on the person? Some people acknowledge that they're otaku and take some element of pride in it regardless of how the wider community might see them. Within circles of people like that, otaku will be a positive term (a term for people who share the same interests as the group).On the other hand other people might not like to be associated with that image and will take offense. ._.

AJBryant wrote:It's origin dates back to the 1960s TV series "The Man from UNCLE." When it came to Japan, Ilya Kuriyakin was deemed a "cooler, and more distant" character than the others, and so all his lines were translated as calling people "otaku."

"Otaku" at the time was typically used as a second-person address by hyperpolite shopkeepers in addressing their customers, and maintained a strict distance between the speaker and listener. It was VERY... what's the word?... non-connected, distant, impersonal.... term. And that was how Ilya addressed Napoleon Solo. "Otaku wa, ne."

This caught on with fans as "cool."

Soon, SF and related-genre fans (a small, small number of the population) were calling each other "otaku" as second person address. A genre essayist began writing articles about the idea, and within the SF world popularized the concept of the "otaku zoku" -- the "otaku" tribe. I can't recall his name now, but I did an interview with him when I was at the Mainichi, so I got the story from the horse's mouth. Very weird guy.

From here, it stayed in relative obscurity of a fandom-internal thing until a mentally disturbed and obsessed anime fan murdered a little girl, and his self identification as a member of the "otaku zoku" brought the concept to the public awareness. All the weekly magazines and tabloids ran with the "otaku" concept, really altering its wider perception and usage.

Why are we going so indepth? All languages do this. English: f*** (i heard) was originally the term for farmers to sow seeds into the ground and now look at what we have, one of the most used and most impolite word ever to be in a dictionary. Spanish: stupido means stupid (obviously) but whenever you call someone else stupido it means the same as the first example (unfortunately I learned that from experience)

"I hate that destiny trash. So if being a regular person is my destiny, then I'll just prove you wrong." --Me

They're going in depth because etymology can actually be quite interesting.

The F word in English has actually been used for hundreds of years meaning what it means today. The origin is difficult to determine, but you're wrong about the farmers/sow seeds thing. In many of the suggested etymologies the meaning hasn't even changed that much, it's just become more vulgar. (If this falls under the "no bad words" rule then please feel free to delete these lines.)

Also you probably mean estúpido... not stupido (Spanish words can't start with the combination "st")